Ten steps to passing ACCA 3.6

08/11/2005

BPP Liverpool tutor Paul Bennett maximises your chances of passing paper 3.6 by bringing you ten top tips to follow. With the June pass rate down six percent on the previous sitting, this is just the job

1 - Find a good tuition provider with up-to-date materials. This is particularly important for paper 3.6 as the syllabus is always changing and the examiner, Graham Holt, sets exams which test your knowledge of recent accounting standards and current developments.

Look for a tuition provider with ACCA Premier or (even better) Premier Plus status (you can view lists of these on ACCA’s website) and ask qualified friends and colleagues for their recommendations. Go to open days to check out tutors, study materials and premises. Look for an approachable tutor – you might not be the class Hermione Granger but you’ll probably have more questions to ask than you did for lower level papers.

2 - Review the examinable legislation and documents for your sitting of the 3.6 exam which can be found in ACCA’s Student Accountant magazine in February and September each year (or on the ACCA website). Although a good, broad knowledge of the whole syllabus is required to pass the exam, make time to focus on the newest standards and exposure drafts. These are the ones most likely to be tested in detail in the exam.

3 - Whether you are attending a taught course or following a home study system, start studying seriously from day one. The syllabus is huge but reassuringly it builds on your paper 2.5 knowledge. However, there is a lot to learn and re-learn so the sooner you start building up your knowledge the better.

For each accounting standard/exposure draft you study complete a small index card, with the name and number of the standard on one side and some key points on the other. Then carry these round with you and test yourself when you have a spare minute. Looking at the name/number side, can you remember the key points? Scanning the other side, can you recall the name and number correctly?

4 - Try to read round the subject, not focusing solely on your study materials. Articles in Student Accountant magazine marked as relevant to paper 3.6 (which can be downloaded from the ACCA website) are essential reading, especially any written by Graham Holt, as they are often tested in subsequent exams. The accounting standards setters have websites giving details of projects they are working on and current developments (see for example www.iasb.org.uk or www.asb.org.uk). Newspaper articles in the business pages can give useful illustrations for an exam answer (e.g. explaining why a company’s results have changed as they switch from local GAAP to international standards).

5 - Group accounting techniques are a core area of the syllabus – you must practise consolidations. We know question one of the exam is always on group accounts, and the topic also often appears in one or more of the optional questions. Make sure you have a good grasp of the basic techniques, as these can give you the easier marks in the exam. Review your paper 2.5 notes if necessary - assuming you did not burn them to celebrate passing that exam! Then build up knowledge of more advanced areas like consolidating foreign subsidiaries.

6 - Review some real sets of accounts to see how companies apply the standards you are studying in real life situations. Look at your own organisation’s accounts, maybe those of the shop where you buy clothes, the football club you support or the pub chain where you have a drink. For larger companies you’ll usually find the latest Annual Report on their website.

7 - Don’t get bogged down in the details of any one area you are studying. Accounting standards have lots of detailed rules, but concentrate on the main issues first - why a standard was released, the main objectives and how these are achieved. You will gradually build up more detailed knowledge by attempting questions and re-reading your notes. Be patient too. Maybe at paper 2.5 everything made sense first time round. At Part 3, however, the topics and issues are harder so give them time to sink in. Knowledge you are gaining from other Part 3 core papers will sometimes shed light on a 3.6 topic. For example, hedge accounting will make more sense when you have studied hedging techniques in paper 3.7.

8 - The Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements (or for UK stream students the Statement of Principles) is particularly important at paper 3.6 as the conceptual framework on which standards are based. Spend some time becoming familiar with the key principles, then see how they are applied to each standard you study.

9 - Make good use of all the study resources at your disposal. If you have a friend studying paper 3.6 at the same time as you, meet up occasionally to discuss a selected topic. If not, ask a recently qualified work colleague if you can do this (maybe over a lunchtime sandwich). When you come across something you can’t understand, don’t spend long puzzling over it - ask your tutor. In a rapidly changing subject such as paper 3.6, it could just be a misprint in your study material which a tutor would quickly spot.

10 - Accept that it’s a tough paper and studying for it will involve some hard work. BUT it’s not impossible. The examiner is known for setting tough papers but marking them leniently. Think of the qualified accountants you know. They’ll be good accountants, but not superhuman. Reasonable (not perfect) knowledge coupled with question practice and good exam technique will get you through. Good luck with your studies, keep going - and roll on those study-free evenings and weekends when you’ve passed!

Story posted by Alex Miller